Hammond apologizes to the Mexicans, but defends Top Gear

After being criticized for slanderous accusations about the Mexican people and their culture, Richard Hammond, the youngest from the famous Top Gear trio, has come with a number of explanations. During a show broadcast in late January, Hammond described the Mexican people as “a lazy, feckless, flatulent oaf with a moustache, leaning against a fence asleep, looking at a cactus, with a blanket with a hole in the middle as a coat.”

Today, the British moderator acknowledged the mistake, but defended the show in which they operate. “One of the reasons Top Gear works is because we are three fairly ordinary blokes. You can identify with one or the other of us, be it age, height, presentation or manner… and one of the traits we bring together as a team is a certain outspoken quality.”

Hammond continued: “We love doing what we do and we work very hard at it. We’re very proud that it appeals to a broad bunch of people, and hopefully we will stay in that position. We’re still making the show as well as we can. We didn’t set out to make Top Gear to be famous, or for it to be huge even – we set out to make the best show we could and that’s not just us three on it, but also everybody else behind the scenes. ‘That’s what we are about and that is what we try to do. We’ll continue to do that for as long as it’s on. We want to make it as good as possible, because that is our job.”

On his Facebook page, Hammond explained the incident: “I was talking about the cartoon characters in western movies we all watched as kids and I am really sorry if I’ve offended anyone. ‘Yes, we were stereotyping on Top Gear and yes, that can go wrong – as it rather has – but it can also be quite funny and that’s what we were hoping to do.”